ration, and enter fully into the theme, glad of the new thoughts even when the old theme, per se, has no charms for us. Amongst the many fine things which have been said of Memory, where are there four lines which concentrate so much regret as are found embedded in this utterance?

I dare not let it languish, Dare not indulge in memory's rapturous pain;

Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
How could I taste the empty world again?
This is no maundering of a simply senti-
mental spirit, but the outcome of a soul
that had suffered, and had not lost its
strength, though a deep sorrow encom-
passed it, and obscured its vision. There
was not the light that shone in the old
days, and the regret that has overtaken
many a heart formed a truthful and fine
utterance in one who was gifted with a
power of expression beyond her fellows.
But the last lines which this wonderfully-
gifted woman ever wrote strike us as be-
ing specially note-worthy. They are an
address to the Deity: space fails us to
quote them all, but as a specimen of their
strength we may give the following: -

Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men's hearts; unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest paths amid the boundless main.

To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by Thine infinity.

Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.

There is not room for death,

Nor atom that His might could render void;
Thou, thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.
We will not stay to investigate the theol-
ogy of this passage, but as a specimen of
poetic vigour it is well worthy of reprint-
ing. The poems of Charlotte Brontë
strike us as being the least excellent in
the collection. Correct as they are in
sentiment and expression, they lack
the emphasis to be perceived in those of
her sisters. The probability is that
while Emily and Anne Brontë would have
attained considerable eminence as poets,
Charlotte would have wasted her powers
on a branch of literature to which she
was not quite adapted. In the case of
Emily, the brief, decisive, epigrammatic
form of expression suited her genius, just

of

as the devotional cadence suited that of
Anne, but Charlotte had better scope in
a more didactic and extended style. One
spirit breathes through the poems of
Acton Bell-that which animates the
trembling suppliant appealing to Heaven.
They are all a single cry couched in dif
ferent, but exquisite language, the cry
a dependant for guidance by a Sovereign
hand. The moods may differ, but the
substance of the soul's aspiration is the
same, and there are few sweeter religious
poems than that which contains the last
thoughts and wishes of Acton Bell. The
verses are so well known that we refrain
from reproducing them; but they may be
taken as a good illustration of the spirit
which animated the author, and form a
touching farewell to a world in which she
could never be said to have been at
home.

With regard to the position which the Brontës occupy amongst authors, we express ourselves with some diffidence.

In summing up their general merits, and pronouncing upon their works, it must be done as a whole, and with no singling out of particular excellences. So, whilst Charlotte Brontë infinitely eclipses nov elists of the highest reputation in isolated qualities such as those we have already endeavoured to point out-it must be confessed that when we speak of her as the artist it cannot be as pertaining to the very highest rank. Her genius is intense, but not broad, and it is breadth alone which distinguishes the loftiest minds. But if she fails to attain the standard of the few writers who have been uplifted by common consent to the highest pinnacle of fame, she is the equal of any authors of the second rank. It is not too much to predict, in fact, that many meretricious works which have been commended for public admiration will lose in popularity, while those of which we have been speaking will increase. It is impossible for two of the works of Charlotte Brontë to fall out of our literature. They have been stamped as genuine gold and will keep continually in circulation. Works which fail to pass this ordeal are those which are either weak or false; these are both strong and true. We obtain from the author of Jane Eyre no multitude of characters, but those we do get we become closely familiar with- and one being of veritable flesh and blood is worth a thousand insubstantial imitations. The novels deal with no particular forms of religious be lief, or social questions, which the author

would doubtless but have regarded as
accidents of which she cared to take no
account; and hence we may affirm that
after the lapse of fifty years her works
would read as freshly as when they first
made their appearance. It was humanity
she strove to produce; not its creeds,
crotchets, or peculiarities; and it is for
this reason that the labour will trium-
phantly stand the test of time. The
inner life of a soul is very much the same
in all ages.
Its hopes, its fears, and
its joys do not change with the chang-
ing seasons and the revolving years.
Ages pass away, and those writers and
writings which have only appealed to
transient phases of thought or particular
changes of society are swept away as by
a resistless current, whilst those who
defy the potency of the waves are the
gifted few who have shown the genuine
power of interpreting nature, or of deal-
ing with the passions of the human heart.

From The Globe. PERSIAN ETIQUETTE AND PECULIARITIES.

prince, who sat by his side. During the whole time his Majesty's favourite wife remained seated behind him. Every now and then the Shah would shove a handful of food into her mouth, and as his handfuls were remarkably large, the poor creature was nearly choked. When the time allotted for the repast expired, the princes rose and quitted the room without washing their hands, for this indispensable termination to an Eastern meal is not permitted to take place in the presence of royalty. The Shah himself used to linger over his dinner after their departure, for he was very fond of the pleasures of the table. Sometimes of an evening gambling would take place in his apartments. Of course, it was etiquette to lose to his Majesty, and moreover it was the custom for one-tenth of all winnings to go to the Shah, who placed them in a vessel shaped like a duck. Consequently nearly all the ready cash in the assembly had by the end of the sitting taken one direction, and the Shah, shaking his singular cash-box, would observe laughingly, "The King's bird has been fortunate to-night." In George the Third's reign gambling used on stated occasions to take place at St. James's, It is singular how little we know about but it was the groom porter, not the SovPersian manners and customs, consider-ereign, who profited by the transaction. ing how long we have held diplomatic Among other customs enforced by etiintercourse with the King of Kings. Yet quette is the rule that where a superior the subject is not devoid of interest, es- dines with an inferior the latter brings in pecially at the present moment. The the first dish himself, a practice not withPersian tongue has long been the lan-out precedent at Western courts. The guage of Oriental diplomatists, and Per- bringing in a dish is, however, in Persia sian etiquette is remarkable for its elab- no light undertaking, and requires conoration. Indeed, Persia is now almost siderable skill, strength, and practice, for the only country where Oriental etiquette the manner in which the operation is peris kept up in all its ancient purity. formed is, especially at court, strictly The customs of the Court of the pres- prescribed. The dish or tray must be ent Shah are very different from those held at arm's length, carried perfectly which prevailed in the time of the cele-horizontally, and deposited precisely in brated Futteh Ali Shah, who died in the right place at once. Some ludicrous 1835. When he took his mid-day meal, stories are related about this practice. or dinner, he used first of all to seat him- One old gentleman with a magnificent self and taste some of the dishes; then, beard had to bring in a large tray conon a given signal, his wives came in and taining several dishes, and place it in stood round the room. At the same time front of the Shah. The tray was heavy, the princes, his sons and grandsons, were the bearer was feeble, and, to make matsummoned from the ante-chamber, and ters worse, just as he was about to deposit stood round the table-cloth without saying it a candle, which he had not observed, a word. On a signal from the Shah they set fire to his magnificent beard. For a squatted down in their appointed places, moment he was in a state of the utmost and silently proceeded to eat. The dish- perplexity. To put down the tray elsees which stood next them might be to where than in its appointed place, an their tastes or the contrary, but it was operation which required some deliberanot etiquette to ask for anything, or to tion, was out of the question. To allow help themselves from a dish at a distance. his cherished beard to be consumed was The Shah only spoke to the senior also impossible. He was equal to the

occasion, and plunging his flaming beard | reception by the present Shah some into a dish of curds which stood on the eleven years ago. His Majesty will not, tray he calmly completed his task, amidst it is to be hoped, be disappointed on findthe applause and amusement of the be-ing, when he attends the ball at Buckingholders. ham Palace on Wednesday next, that the

All marks of respect are observed by Archbishop of Canterbury invokes no the Persians with the utmost punctilious-blessing on the Queen, and that Mr. Tenness and exactitude. On the Shah enter-nyson does not open his mouth. ing the throne-room on a State occasion The jewels of the Shah are, as we can and seating himself, an official shouts judge for ourselves, magnificent, but this out, "He has passed!" and all present is partly explained by the fact that it is bow by stooping the body and placing not the custom in Persia for any one save the palms of the hands lightly on the the sovereign to wear jewels. Another knees. The "eye of the State" then peculiarity in Persian court life is that on walks backwards from the Shah, and, state occasions no one save the Shah moving down the assembly, gives hand- himself is mounted. fuls of silver coins from a golden salver. Inferior officers distribute sherbet from jewelled cups and bowls of rare china. The next incident is the recital by a Mula of the prayer for the sovereign, and the whole affair winds up with an ode spoken by the Poet Laureate. Such is an abstract of Mr. Eastwick's description of a

It may not be generally known that the Shah is not the first royal Persian who has visited London. His predecessors were three Persian princes who, having been engaged in a rebellion, fled here in 1835 to implore the intercession of the British Government. They were not, however, received as public guests.

first edition, and is believed to be unique. Copies of a later edition are in the Bodleian and the Cathedral Library at St. Paul's, but there was no copy of either in the British Museum until the recent purchase was effected.

AGAINST THE TIDE.

Athenæum.

WE understand that a volume of very great | having him burnt as a heretic, to such lengths interest has recently been acquired for the was the odium theologicum carried in those Library of the British Museum, namely, one of days! The copy of Tyndale's work thus sethe rarest works of Tyndale, the great Re-cured for our great public library is of the former, and first translator of the New Testament into modern English. It is entitled, "The Exposition of the Fyrste Epistle of Seynt Jhon, with a Prologge before it; by W. T." There is no place of imprint mentioned, but there is every reason to believe that it was printed at Antwerp, and the date of publication is given at the end as "the yere of our lorde, 1531, in September." Tyndale was then living at Antwerp, and a copy of this very work fell into the hands of one Vaughan, who had been commissioned by the English Government to watch over Tyndale's move-'TIS sweet to float along the flowing tide, ments, and, if possible, inveigle him to return to England. Vaughan sent the book to Cromwell, requesting him to lay it before the King, which we presume was done. In the following year it was strictly prohibited, and Sir Thomas More, in his "Confutacyon of Tyndale's Answere," alludes to it in the following sarcastic and bitter terms: "Then we have fro Tyndale the fyrste pystle of Saynte John in suche wyse expowned, that I dare say that blessed Apostle rather then his holy wordes were in suche a sense byleved of all Crysten people hadde lever his pystle hadde never been put in wrytynge." The animosity shown by Sir Thomas More towards Tyndale was of the most intense kind, and he used every exertion to get him into his power with a view to

The water's soothing melody around,
And unseen harps with notes of dulcet sound
Lulling the ear as down the stream we glide,
And all of beautiful and fair to see,

And balmy winds blowing upon the brow,
And all is well if left as it is now.
But let the brave clear thinker strive to free
Earth's groaning spirits from their galling
chain,

And, like a shipwrecked sailor far from
shore

Upon a raft amid the surging main,

He hears the warning of the breaker's roar, And, should he drift into some smiling bay, Fierce-visaged warriors motion him away. Tinsley's Magazine.

Good Words,

Contemporary Review,.
Chambers' Journal,

323

338

.

346

355

372

378

Pall Mall Gazette,

VIL PRINCE BISMARCK'S POSITION IN GERMANY, Pall Mall Gazette,

VIII. CHURCH AND STATE IN HUNGARY,

THE DESERTED VILLAGE,

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